Sheila and Katherine Lyon-sisters missing since 1975 - #1

[Richard]

question you know how there was a wittness that saw the children in a back of a car gaged and stuff. and how the licences plate was bent, and the witness couldnt get a good look. did they ever check coffeys licences plates do a check on him and see if those combination of letters numbers was registerd to him. that would be a major clue in their disaperance. beacuse then if the combo numbers/letters matched they would have at least some more solid evidence against him. i dont know if anyone thought of this before or if le already looked into it.

Yes, the police spent a great deal of effort in tracking down each and every car with the combination of letters and numbers. They spoke with the owners and ruled all of them out as suspects. HOWEVER, you bring up a very good point in regard to checking the list (which should exist in MCP files) against some of the later persons of interest. I do not know if that has ever been done.

MCP tried in 1987 to learn if Coffey had a Maryland registered car, but there were no records to prove it. Since he had only recently come to Maryland from Virginia, it is doubtful that he would have had a plate issued from the place those plates were from - unless he had borrowed the car, or purchased one from an individual who did not remove the plates.

It is quite possible that either the witness was mistaken completely in his identification of the plate, or that he made the whole story up for whatever reason. Police at first believed the witness and took the tip very seriously, but later - after much searching - they doubted the reliability of it.

 

[smile22]

so the wittness was not crediable and that they prolly did it for attention? how sad. did coffeey have a alabi at the time of the girls disaperance.? was there such things as securty cameras back then? if their was did the mall have any outside that might have seen them leaving the mall. and possibly the person ( tape recorder man)

 

[Melissa]

Richard,
In one of your posts you mentioned trying to get in touch with The Washington Times to see if they would cover the Lyons' sisters disapperance. Well I am bringing The Washington Times to you. I am a reporter at The Washington Times and we would very much like to cover the story of the girls and it seems like you have a lot of information about the case and I was hoping I could speak to you about it. If you are willing to speak to me please email me at [email protected]
Thank you, I look forward to hearing from you.

Melissa Brosk
The Washington Times
Metro Reporter

 

[marylandmissing]

MCP tried in 1987 to learn if Coffey had a Maryland registered car, but there were no records to prove it. Since he had only recently come to Maryland from Virginia, it is doubtful that he would have had a plate issued from the place those plates were from - unless he had borrowed the car, or purchased one from an individual who did not remove the plates.

Wasn't there something about the first thing numbers were used in central maryland location?

 

[marylandmissing]

Thank you Melissa.

 

[marylandmissing]

The Gazette has run a special on this.
http://www.gazette.net/200512/montgomerycty/county/265842-1.html

 

[monkalup]

<<The 25th of March is Good Friday. It also marks the 30th anniversary of the day that Sheila and Kate Lyon were last seen in Wheaton, Maryland. >>

These poor children. Same day my Jean Marie Stewart disappeared, just five days later.

 

[riley20815]

Hi this is my first post. This case has always haunted me. I grew up in the same general area, and although I'm a few years yonger than the Lyon sisters and don't remember the case when it happened, I do remember my mother always being upset whenever I said that I wanted to go to Wheaton Plaza for the movies, ice cream, etc. I remember her telling me that a long time ago, girls were kidnapped from this mall, and I either didn't ask about the specifics or she didn't want to tell me, but it frightened me. My middle school boyfriend and I would usually walk from his house in Kensington to go to the plaza or some other locale in Wheaton, and being young teenagers, of course we didn't really think about safety.

The thing that haunts me about the case is the lack of evidence. I mean, it's hard for me to comprehend that people can just disappear off the face of the earth and no one knows what happened. Of course it happens, but for me it's a hard concept to grasp.

Last night I searched the Washington Post archives and printed out several articles that ran during the time of the search, hoping to find out anything I could. I don't know why...and not having children myself or been in this situation, there's no way I could ever understand the pain and anguish the family has constantly been going through since the disappearance.

It's hard for me to describe the way the anniversary of this case makes me feel. I've just had an empty, sobering, very refelctive mood the past few days. I just hope and pray that some day we will learn what happened so that the poor Lyon family can have some sort of closure.

Sarah

 

[Fronkensteen]

Yes, the police spent a great deal of effort in tracking down each and every car with the combination of letters and numbers. They spoke with the owners and ruled all of them out as suspects. HOWEVER, you bring up a very good point in regard to checking the list (which should exist in MCP files) against some of the later persons of interest. I do not know if that has ever been done.

MCP tried in 1987 to learn if Coffey had a Maryland registered car, but there were no records to prove it. Since he had only recently come to Maryland from Virginia, it is doubtful that he would have had a plate issued from the place those plates were from - unless he had borrowed the car, or purchased one from an individual who did not remove the plates.

It is quite possible that either the witness was mistaken completely in his identification of the plate, or that he made the whole story up for whatever reason. Police at first believed the witness and took the tip very seriously, but later - after much searching - they doubted the reliability of it.

Even though this avenue has probably been checked, we should check with Montgomery County police to be sure.

It's possible that the plates were stolen (although bending a plate to that extreme seems a deliberate act of concealment). If the car was stolen, a police report should exist, unless it was destroyed over the years.

A quote from the Evening Capital dated 03/24/1980:

"Although police had the first four digits of the license plate - DMT6 - the search was hampered by the fact that 1975 was the first time in five years new plates had been issued and the numbers had not yet been recorded into the police department's computer. As a result, police were forced to check hundreds of possible number combinations by hand."

If the plate numbers were eventually entered into the computer records, either the witness got it wrong, a mistake was made, crucial information was lost in this process, or information was destroyed/forgotten.

Rick Kretschmer, a license plate collecter who grew up about 15 miles from Wheaton in the 70's, told me via email:

"So the DMT 600 series plate was without question a red-on-white plate issued during the month of March 1975. But since every single passenger car in the entire state had been issued new red-on-white plates during March 1975, there is no way to know from this license plate how long the vehicle had actually been registered in Maryland.

"I was thinking more about the DMT 600 series of plates being issued in multiple cities. It's certainly possible that these were sent out via mail rather than issued over the counter. Plates were issued both ways. I was focused on the over-the-counter method; if this series of plates was issued over the counter at an MVA office I would think that they would have all been issued in one place. However, many people sent their renewal applications by mail to the Glen Burnie HQ and received their plates back in the mail. If the box(es) of DMT 600 series plates were distributed this way, they probably would have been sent to motorists all over the state, not just to Baltimore, Cumberland, and Hagerstown. Perhaps there were plates issued to three different 1968 Ford station wagons in this series of 100 plates, located in these three cities. Maybe the cops just investigated these three vehicles, rather than all 100 vehicles in this series. If the bad guys had stolen the plate, it probably would have been reported. But if they simply switched it with the plate from another vehicle they had access to, no one would be the wiser."

I had contacted the Maryland Motor Vehicle office to inquire about these records, but was told that they would only talk to LE.

I wonder what types of cars were being driven by members of Fred Howard Coffey's family or by his friends/associates during this period?

Fronk

 

[riley20815]

Does anyone by any chance have pictures of what the old Wheaton Plaza looked like before it was enclosed, or an aerial? I've searched, but haven't been able to find anything. I'm curious to see the layout of the place, and where the turn-in roads were, things like that. Thanks, I know this is most likely an impossible request.

 

[marylandmissing]

NBC 4 will be doing something on this tomorrow.

 

[Richard]

Does anyone by any chance have pictures of what the old Wheaton Plaza looked like before it was enclosed, or an aerial? I've searched, but haven't been able to find anything. I'm curious to see the layout of the place, and where the turn-in roads were, things like that. Thanks, I know this is most likely an impossible request.

Not impossible at all! I do have a detailed 1976 map of the area which shows Wheaton Plaza, its entrances, and the residential area to the west and south of it.

Unfortunately, I am out of the country for a short time and the map is back home in Maryland. So I cannot scan or copy it right now.

I looked at that map only a week or two ago. To the best of my recall, there were entrances to the Mall from Viers Mill Road, which borders the mall on the north, and from Georgia Ave (?), which borders the mall on the east. There were a few residential roads that ended at the mall property line to the south and west. I know that the two girls walked to the mall along Drumm Ave, and walked up to the parking lot from the residential area.

It is possible that someone might have been able to actually drive into that parking lot from the residential area, but I am not certain of that. Some of the posters to this thread could answer that question better, because they actually lived there at the time. I can say that there is no access by road to that mall today except from the two main Roads which border it to the north and east - and that this has been the case since at least 2000.

Blue prints and Site Plans of the mall (past and present) would have to be on file in the Montgomery County Administration Building probably in the office which issues building permits. They may also have aerial photos of the area on file.

If you do some searching on-line, there is a site which has aerial photos of the entire U.S. If you can get the correct coordinates, you should be able to obtain current and past aerial photos of Wheaton Plaza as well.

 

[riley20815]

Thanks Richard! Those entrances/exits you mentioned sound similar to the way the mall is now. It's definitely changed from the way I remember it from my childhood. I will search further on the internet for maps, because no doubt there were a lot more wooded areas back in '75 than there are now. I'm curious as to whether the Orange Bowl restaurant was close to where the theaters are now (or at least several years ago), down a little service-type road behind a main store (Circuit City, perhaps). I remember there being a very wooded area near there, and it used to make me nervous coming out of the theater at night because of it. Thank you for your help!

I also have downloaded several articles from the Washington Post archives from that time, and if anyone's interested, please let me know. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to copy the text here, so I'll err on the side of caution and not do it.

Such a sad, haunting story, and I've been thinking about it so much lately.

 

[riley20815]

Well, it's been exactly 30 years since the day they disappeared. I pray that their parents will soon find some answers, and that foul play didn't come upon these two beautiful girls, but if it did, may they rest in peace. Sheila and Katherine, we will never forget you.

 

[revlis]

To Katherine and Sheila......God Bless you and your family on this 30th anniversary...You have been in my prayers for 30 years and will be until we bring you home...

 

[marylandmissing]

I have a picture of the area but don't know how to get it to upload.

 

[marylandmissing]

Hopefully this works.

 

[riley20815]

That worked great, thank you! May I ask, was this photo included in this week's Gazette, or is this an older story? I read the two stories they have online this week, and if this photo is included in the print edition, I'm going to ask my parents to save the paper from this week.

 

[DCNationalsFan]

Thirty years ago at this moment, my boyfriend and I were taking pictures of the Easter Decorations at Wheaton Plaza. I was a journalism student at the University of Maryland, and the assignment was for my photojournalism class with Dr. Phil Geraci.


The next day, with the news of the disappearance of the Lyon sisters all over the news, I developed the roll of black and white Tri-X film in the school's darkroom and made a contact sheet and some enlargements. Geraci and I examined each picture for signs of two little blonde-haired girls--nothing showed up. I remember vividly the giant white Easter Bunny decoration in the middle of the plaza that afternoon.

Last night, remembering the utter shock of that event, I did a Google search on the girls and happened to see Coffey's mug on this site. His hollow stare is haunting. Now I"m thinking I will search for those old contact sheets/photos...

But where did I put them?

 

[riley20815]

That's incredible that you were there at the same time. I keep thinking in terms of "30 years ago this moment" today also, even though I wasn't there. That would be amazing if you could find those contact sheets. I wonder if the Montgomery County police would be able to find anything useful in your photos...